Life of Miriam Wiki:Manual of Style
Canon Policy Here at , we only use information gathered from the series itself. We do not use any information from fan written fiction otherwise known as fanon. We also prohibit the use of slang terms as topics of articles, such as Milvan. This is not appropriate for this wiki and may result in blockage of the user. From time to time, the wiki may obtain first-hand information from the crew. This will be treated as canon unless specifically refuted on-screen. Use of information from the crew must be cited by reference tags. Character Ages, Height, Full Names The only ages, heights, and full names that may be included in the are ones that have been explicitly or implicitly stated on the show. Users must not edit pages to include other speculative information of characters that are not mentioned in the show. If an age, height, or full name is mentioned on a page, the source must be cited by reference tags. Grammar and Punctuation When writing articles it is important to follow these rules of the English language: #Don't use netspeak or any similar slang and avoid abbreviations in articles. We are compiling a professional resource for Life of Miriam fans. #Keep your writing around a 6th Grade reading level. You don't need to fill it with big words just to make it sound smarter, especially if you're not certain how the word should be used. #Vary your words. When writing, try to vary the words you use and the length of your sentences. It makes things sound more interesting. #Capitalize words when appropriate. (see below) #Use correct punctuation. This includes commas, periods, quotation marks, and apostrophes. (see below) #Know the difference between homophones: there, their, and they're; here and hear; it's and its; who's and whose. Capitalization #Capitalize the first word of every sentence. (eg. ') #Capitalize proper nouns. (eg. Battle Creek) #Capitalize the first, last, and important words in a title. (eg. "Love is Forever Until it's Over") For a full list visit [http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/capitals.htm Capital Community College's ''Guide to Grammar and Writing] Punctuation In addition to basic punctuation, it is important to know how to punctuate titles. Titles are always either in italics or inside quotation marks. Italics Italics are used for large works like movies, television series, books, songs, albums, and DVDs. :'''Examples: :*''Life of Miriam'' :*''Season 1 (DVD)'' To use italics on Wikia place two single quote marks before and after the title: :Life of Miriam These are single quotes ('), not double quotes ("). Alternately, highlight the title you want to put in italics with your mouse and click the "I''" button in the toolbar above the edit box (in between the B for bolding and AB for the Internal link). Quotation Marks Quotation marks are used to enclose things that are part of a larger work, such as episodes. :'Example:' :*"Public Domain Birthday Episode" Links To link to another article inside , you must put [[]] around it. To link to an article in Wikipedia, use wikipedia: and put the article title inside. To link to an article in a Wikia wiki, use w:c:wikiaddress: and put the article title inside. If an article does not exist by that name, the link will show up as dark red, like this. External links will show up as blue. You only need to link to another page once in any given article. Most of the time this is the first time that article's title comes up, but there are some exceptions to this. :'Examples:' :*Linda Brown :*an article about the platypus Episode Articles *Do not link to another page during the brief introductory summary that appears prior to the Table of Contents. Instead, link only the first time an article title appears in the Episode Summary. *In the Cast section, each actor and character should be linked to. *In the Memorable Quotes section, link to an article the first time it appears even if it's been linked to previously. Links to Character Articles When referencing a character, a majority of the time they can be referred to by just their first name, e.g., Evan instead of Evan Jackson. To assist with creating links inside pages, redirects have been established for the characters with unique names (Susan, Alyssa, Tahoma, etc.). This reduces the amount of typing without affecting the appearance of a link. :'Examples:' :*'Evan' works just the same as 'Evan Jackson' and 'Evan' :*'Mr. Taylor' works just the same as 'Robert Taylor' and 'Mr. Taylor' :*'Taylor' does not work as Mr. Taylor and Robert Taylor because Taylor is a disambiguation page. If it is necessary to have the link display something other than the title of the link, that information should be placed after the pipe (the vertical bar) inside the link: Casey's mom. Spacing Web pages do not look the same for everyone. Different web browsers will display things different from one another. For example, Firefox may show a sentence wrapping around a picture while Safari does not. Internet Explorer 8 will show a transparent background in a PNG picture while Internet Explorer 6 does not. When editing a page, use the following rules: * Keep article content as close to the top of the page as possible. * Put one blank line in between paragraphs. * Put two blank lines if you need to separate things with a little more space. * Use the template to separate things with less space, such as certain templates. * Larger spacings should be created with different commands rather than adding more blank lines. Naming Articles Episodes Episode articles are named for the episodes precisely as they are presented on-screen. Each episode begins by portraying its title and we must use it exactly as written. This includes capitalization and punctuation. When linking to an episode article, quotation marks should be used, as shown in the examples below. *Use "HOA, Sweet HOA" instead of "HOA Sweet HOA" *Use "Babble of the Bands" instead of "Babble Of The Bands" Please note that it may be appropriate to create redirects from one or two common misspellings or mis-capitalizations of titles to make users' searches easier. Administrators may move articles without consultation when they don't conform to the Episode Naming Policy. Characters There are a few simple rules to follow when naming a character article. #Characters are named using first and last name if both are known, i.e. Robert Taylor. #If a character's last name is not known from a canon source, then it is okay to use only a first name, i.e. Maya. #If a character's first name is not known from a canon source, then it is okay to use the last name preceded by a known title, i.e. Dr. Sanford. You may want to create redirects for common address of a character. For example: *Redirect Evan to Evan Jackson *Redirect Adam to Adam Hill *Redirect Kim to Kim Andrews Administrators may move articles without consultation if they do not conform to the Character Naming Policy. Songs Due to inconsistencies between how song titles are listed on official registration sites and on albums (the song titles may be different between the two and may be capitalized differently), the following rules apply: * Each word will be capitalized except for minor words like "a", "an", "is", "the", "to", et cetera, with the first and last words in the title always capitalized. Example: Battle Hymn of the Republic * Song titles should be italicized rather than surrounded by quote marks to distinguish it from an episode. Example: All Day instead of "All Day". * When more than one official source is available for a song title, the following order will be used to determine which song title is used: :# A commercial release, such as a CD :# A message from the songwriter(s) :# A press release :# The BMI registered song title * When a song has the same name as another page, the following will be used to determine which gets priority: :# Episodes :# Characters :# Songs :In this situation, the song page should be named with "(song)" after it in lowercase letters. Example: Love is Forever Until it's Over (song) : When displaying a song like this, use the following code: Love is Forever Until it's Over Other topics Other topics should always use lower case letters after the initial capitalization unless the word is always capitalized. For example: *Use List of songs instead of List of Songs *Use Jackson family instead of Jackson Family *Battle Creek Credit Union is correct because it is a proper noun. Note that this wiki handles capitalized words differently than lowercase words. Entering them into search will bring up two different articles. Point of View Articles on the are written from an in-universe point of view as if the person, object, or event actually existed or occurred. *Use tense the same way a standard encyclopedia would. *Because the passage of time is unclear and some episodes occur out or chronological order, it may sometimes be difficult not to refer to another episode by name. You should strive to use language that would be in-universe in order to avoid it whenever possible. The best way to avoid naming an episode is to describe the events of the episode such as, "On the day Miriam chaperoned at the winter school dance." *Behind the scenes information should be located in a "Background Information" section or indented and italicized if you do not have enough for a separate section. This information is covered by the Real World point of view. Real World Point of View The real world point of view applies to articles that that are written about production personnel, actors, some songs, or other series information which are not part of the Life of Miriam universe. They should be written the same as a standard encyclopedia entry in present day. All of these articles are marked with a tag. For all articles where it is necessary to include a link to an external site for a real-world article, use italics for books, movies and songs. Use regular text for all other links. Examples: :* Google — non-italicized link :* Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — italicized link to the movie article Episodes Episode articles are a blend of the in-universe and real world points of view. Summaries may be written in present tense and in a novelization style if desired but should otherwise maintain an in-universe point of view. Infoboxes and all other sections are written from the real world point of view. The intro will be a brief and general summary on the article; if it is a season finale, season premiere, or series premiere, then please note after that intro summary in parenthesis and italics. :Use: "[Evan is playing paddleball as Alyssa watches." :Instead of: "The episode begins with Evan playing paddleball as Alyssa watches." :Use: "Meanwhile, Miriam is pacing in her office, trying to think of a solution to her problem." :Instead of: "We cut to Miriam pacing in her office, trying to think of a solution to her problem." Sources When writing an article, you must cite a source. This involves citing the episode in reference tags using the template. If the source is not an episode, book, etc., but an interview or something like this, you must cite the link only, in reference tags. * If you use any resource to write the article, please list your sources in a section titled "Sources" at the end of the article. A basic setup follows. Sources * Spoilers We only use information from material that has already aired in the United States. If you wish to include information from an unaired episode, you must mark the article with the appropriate tags. *Any article that includes spoilers must have a tag at the beginning of the article. *If spoilers are to be included in any article other than a main episode article, then the spoiler must be contained within the separate tag. This tag uses java to hide spoilers from those who do not want to read them. Note that wiki markup does not work inside this tag. Please keep this information to a minimum and try to only include verified information and not idle speculation. Some users do not want any information about upcoming episodes and we must respect that. See also * *Category:Help Category:Policy Category:Help